Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Movie Plot Leaves Out Too Many Key Components of Novel
Jul 17, 2009
Although author J.K. Rowling has said she believes last book was her best, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is much better because it deals with relationships. The book discusses personal relationships between students and teachers, males and females, Harry and Dumbledore, Harry and Draco, teachers and Dumbledore, parents and children, and teachers and teachers. This is a break from all the other novels where the magic and the link of Harry and Voldemort take center stage.
Harry Potter Follows Book Well
The movie did a wonderful job of keeping the story line focused on relationships. Movie-goers see from the beginning the struggles teens in love experience. The first scene has Harry about to go on a date with a muggle only to have Professor Dumbledore disrupt it. Viewers also get inside Draco’s head over his emotional struggle with his new task from Voldemort and his deteriorating relationship with Professor Snape. However, while Jim Broadbent played an excellent Professor Slughorn, the audience doesn’t really see his desire to surround himself with the top students or his desire to be part of Harry’s world. This also detracts from the book because Harry doesn’t like being part of Slughorn’s Slug Club and believes it’s unfair to those he loves. In the movie, he embraces the Slug Club to get the memory he needs.
In addition to discussing relationships expertly, the movie is funny. The funny parts keeps audiences interested when the action slows. The problem with the sixth novel is it lacks action in many parts because it focuses on building and keeping relationships. The comedy helps get passed this problem. In particular, the actress playing Lavender Brown is funny. Her scenes are well-done and mirror the book quite well.
Harry Potter Misses Key Components
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince helps Harry know why Voldemort didn’t die when the spell rebounded on him when Harry was baby. He learns Voldemort’s secret of the horcruxes and that he must destroy them. While the movie mentions the horcruxes, it fails to explain to Harry and the rest of us why they are important, how to know what objects Voldemort would want or what they are. In fact, Dumbledore didn’t even tell Harry two of them that he knew in the book. This is a key failing of the movie. The horcruxes are the main premise of the seventh book. Another problem was that Harry doesn’t know where he hides his potions book, but he hides it right next to a horcrux in the book.
The movie also downplayed Harry’s relationship with the Weasleys. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had very little air time compared to previous movies. The movie detracted from the book by attacking the burrow at Christmas. This left the audience wondering why except it’s possible that the producers might want to remove the burrow attack from the seventh movie and cut the wedding scene completely.
Audience members also never really knew when Ginny stops dating Dean. She seems to have always been with Harry.
Despite these flaws, Harry Potter fans will want to see the movie more than once. The movie lived up to its reputation and well worth the long wait.
